article imageCalifornia winery puts up $10,000 per month to attract Web guru Special

By David Silverberg.
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May 11, 2009 by  David Silverberg - 15 votes, 2 comments
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It's a dream job -- Murphy-Goode Winery is offering a lucky job applicant $10,000 a month to blog, tweet and video-log news about the California winery. The social media staffer also lives rent-free in California wine country.
It sounds too good to be true: you can spend all day blogging, posting updates on Twitter, maintaining a Facebook group, producing video reports, and earn $10,000 US a month to do what many people do for fun. This is the "world's best job" that has been getting major media attention across the world.
California winery Murphy-Goode isn't joking about this job application. It's put out the request for applicants to send in their resumes to nab this coveted "really goode job". With the deadline in early June, the job application is already luring resumes from across the U.S. In fact, anyone can apply for the social media job, just as long as they can legally work in the U.S.
In late April, eager applicants could get a head-start on the job by attending a San Francisco event Murphy-Goode organized. People from all over the U.S. came to San Fran to learn more.
In June, the applicants will be whittled down to the top 50 and in early July the top 10 candidates will be flown to Healdsburg, California for an in-person interview. Applicants need to send a one-minute video through its job site. In the first week alone, the site attracted 32,000 hits.
The contract position pays $10,000 per month for six months, and gives the employee rent-free housing at a private residence in Healdsburg.
DigitalJournal.com spoke to David Ready, a Murphy-Goode winemaker, about this position. "We're not looking for a sommelier," he says. "We'd rather have someone passionate about wine, who's willing to learn."
Courtesy Murphy-Goode
The Murphy-Goode social media job tryouts in San Francisco. Hardy Wallace, an applicant who flew from Atlanta to San Francisco to attend the event
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The successful social media maven will be responsible for updating a Facebook group page with video blogs and photos. He or she would also control the Murphy-Goode Twitter account and keep followers posted on adventures in wine country.
"Twitter updates should be a diary of what's going on," Ready notes. "Maybe a quick tweet on the walk up the Alexander Valley mountain range, tasting a Cabernet, checking out the harvested grapes."
Ready hopes this push for social media within the winery will not only boost the Murphy-Goode brand but help publicize all the wineries in Sonoma County.
But how can this winery afford to pay someone $10,000 a month to dive onto social media networks? Isn't the recession hurting wine sales?
"Sure, we've seen some softening, but we want to make sure we get solid candidates." Ready pauses. "And that $10,000 might be modest, maybe that person's work could be worth more than that."
The position is only available to six months because the winery "doesn't know how well it will work." It's billed as a temporary position but Ready says anything can happen.
Applicants can still vie for the position at this link.
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